Resilience in family caregivers of persons with acquired brain injury

Abstract

Purpose/objective: The authors' purpose was to develop the Questionnaire of Resilience in Caregivers of Acquired Brain Injury (QRC-ABI) and explore its psychometric properties The QRC-ABI was developed to measure the process of resilience, including resilient factors that, according to the literature, are the most relevant for caregivers.

Research method/design: This is a cross-sectional study of Spanish primary caregivers of individuals with ABI. It included 237 caregivers (77.6% women and 21.1% men) who completed the QRC-ABI, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (Weiss & Berger, 2006), the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (Skevington, Lotfy, O'Connell, & the WHOQOL Group, 2004) assessment, and the Positive Aspects of Caregiving (Tarlow et al., 2004) assessment.

Results: An item pool of 36 items was developed, from which 17 were finally selected based on a consensus among researchers and adequate symmetry indexes and kurtoses. Confirmatory factor analysis of the QRC-ABI confirmed a hierarchical solution in which 4 resilience dimensions were explained by a broader general resilience factor. The internal consistency of each scale was >.80. Convergent validity was supported through positive correlations of the QRC-ABI with quality of life, positive aspects of caregiving, and posttraumatic growth, and a negative correlation with perceived burden.

Conclusion/implications: The new QRC-ABI showed good reliability and validity. Our results are consistent with previous studies that have argued that resilient qualities are important for a healthy and positive adaptation to the challenging adversities faced by caregivers of individuals with ABI. Future interventions based on resilience should promote these factors in caregivers.